Has the art of conversation been lost?

Question:

Has the art of conversation been lost?

My thinking is that due to the pressures of our lifestyle today this are is demaged. Can we recover?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I think with housewives now in full workforce and now that the establishment has got both parents on their sales 'wheel of fortune' there is little time for us to communicate. Rat race without winners? Oh yes. Communication in general has been diluted to the simplest form thanks to stupid slang, shortened ways of speaking thanks to e-mail and IM, and the fact that everyone can be reached so easily. It compromises the integrity of conversation. It's not so important these days. I don't think we'll ever recover. My thinking is that kids are learning much. No one talks about the art of conversation. We hear phrases such as "Duh?"..."No way, man"..etc. Who would want to have a conversation with someone who can't handle one? The pressures today aren't any worse than before...in fact, I'd say they are better now than in the 20s and 30s and 40s. The smarter the person, the better the conversationalist. People used to be trained and taught conversation manners; but not anymore and it doesn't seem to me that most young people feel it's important. We have "dummied down" in this country. i guess it depends what group of ppl u r looking at with this...b/c alot of ppl still have decent converstaions, i think its just the more stressful the job it is the more wrapped up in it u are and the less time u take to have a real chat with someone...but then again thats just my point of view seeing as i live in the middle of nowhere so it is prolly differnt in cities Not ever to recover thanks to all of the hi-tech technology we have today--IM's, text messages, phones, etc. We can't stop progress although at times I wish we could. Maybe if you have one special person in your life you might be able to communicate verbally face to face and if you do then you are lucky. Yes, because everyone is so busy. First, no one even gets a chance to sit down and HAVE a conversation, which I think has to be in person. They always have somewhere else they have to be, something else they have to do, they have to go, go, go!

And listening skills are poor these days. Half of conversing is listening, half is talking. When I am talking with someone, I can see their minds wandering (usually to the next thing on their busy schedule) and they say "Huh?" right in the middle of the 2 of us talking. No it isn't because I am boring, because I'm not, and I don't speak garbled. It is their poor listening skills.

That's all! There still are people who can talk the hind legs off a donkey, and always will be, don't worry! Wot we dont tark
Spelling on purpose.